Couple warns others after they say they were drugged, robbed in Las Vegas

CHICAGO -- Roofied and robbed in Las Vegas? That’s what a Northwest Indiana couple said happened to them during a recent trip to Sin City — and they told WGN-TV their story should be a warning to others.

Jessica Manley and her friend Josh Osborn were in Las Vegas for the Academy of Country Music Awards in April. Osborn and his father Ralph were part of the production team. Manley joined the trip to visit her parents who live there.

Manley and Osborn said they had free tickets to MGM’s Wet Republic pool party and had just ordered a second drink. It was just after noon when things turned ugly.

Osborn said he blacked out and woke up in his hotel room with money and some of his belongings missing.

Manley woke up in the hospital.

“I didn’t know what city I was in,” she said. “[I didn’t know] what year it was. I didn’t know anything and I slipped unconscious and they transported me to the ER …I think I got drugged because I know how I am if I got drunk but this was a very different experience.”

Both said they were out for nearly seven hours and missed a planned meet up with their parents.

Ralph Osborn said he thought the worst when his son didn’t show.

“I’m thinking he’s in jail or something. I haven’t heard from him,” he said “Phone rang and I answered and he’s all in panic mode saying ‘Dad, I can’t find Jess! I don’t have my phone. I’m in my hotel room. I don’t know what’s going on!’”

The family told WGN Investigates security at Hooters Hotel when they were staying, said video showed two women helping Josh Osborn back to his hotel room and then leaving a few minutes later.

Since then, the family talked with security and tried to piece together what happened at the pool.

“There were these two guys that were being weird with her, not social with me, trying to separate us,” Josh Osborn said. “We think maybe the two guys slipped something in quick. Who knows?”

“The lifeguard was watching me and knew I came with just Josh and then noticed shortly after that I was acting highly intoxicated in the pool, not OK, with these two guys I didn’t know getting all over me,” Manley said. “They told security, and security pulled me out of the pool.”

The family said Hooters Casino Hotel security “discouraged” them from filing a police report.

“I was like ‘Listen, I’m tired of hearing, 'It’s Vegas,’” Ralph Osborn said. “I didn’t come to Vegas to find my son in a hotel room and his girlfriend in the hospital.”

The Nevada Gaming Board updated its oversight authority in 2016 to include “club venues” as well as “pool and day clubs.” While they require security and surveillance plans and make everyone from the janitor to a club manager register with the gaming board, a spokesman said the gaming does not track these type of incidents.

A Las Vegas police spokesman told WGN Investigates, “It’s difficult to track something people don’t often report. If we don’t get a report we can’t track it and know there’s an issue.”

Josh Osborn said security blamed them.

“They said it was my fault my belongings were taken,” he said.

Manley said if not for the lifeguard pulling her out of the pool, she fears her Vegas vacation could’ve become an even bigger nightmare that could have included rape and kidnapping.

“I was out for five to six hours. I could’ve been in a different state by then,” she said.

A spokesperson for the company that operates Wet Republic declined to comment on the story. The Hooters Casino Hotel did not respond to WGN’s request for comment.